gulfporter

Last minute meal. We were literally going out the door to walk to a restaurant when thunderclaps made us reconsider. Thawed a hot Italian sausage link and fried with onions, peppers and half a tomato. Rinsed a pack Udon noodles, added goat cheese and fresh basil. Topped with a quick pan toasting of panko, garlic and olive oil. Oh.....it never rained! Storm didn't make it over to our side of lake.

Breakfast for Dinner. Potato hash with bacon. Potatoes culled from our plates at generous local restaurant.

Food For Thought....

So @Ann_T usually pays about $6 CDN per pound for a whole bone-in chicken??

What currency do you use in Cobble Hill?

Before moving to Mexico we almost always had access to exceptional Indian restaurants and I never felt a need to cook Indian at home. I will look for it in stores next trip to Tucson as we live on the outskirts and not near any Indian eateries. I have made Indian meals from scratch in Mexico in the past but often ingredients are hard to come by and the time and effort put into the prep was lengthy. The effort-to-taste ratio of the Patak's paste and a local rotisserie chicken is far more pleasurable!

Hot Curry chicken thanks to Patak's curry paste. It's amazingly good and easy to make, just add a sauteed chopped onion, tomato puree, water and a bit of sugar. It's a bit pricey here (Mexico) but one-half a jar makes 4 generous servings with a whole rotis chicken. Not sure if this brand is sold in US but will look for it next trip north. I did not need to ramp up the spice level at all. Raita made with Persian cukes which are very popular here and cheap, compared to what I pay in US where they must be considered some sort of delicacy given the price. Also had Lime Pickle (also Patak's) and some mango chutney (made by my local deli) on the side. Would have been even better with some naan to dip in the finished sauce, but we are on low carb kick.

Shrimp sandwich at Ajijic Plaza Restaurant. Inside is sauteed (no coating) shrimp and mayo, the assembled sandwich is then dipped in corn flakes and deep fried.

Happy Bastille Day 🍾 🎉 This recipe was surprisingly good...not as good as the ones that take 2 days, but quite nice for a 30 minute hack. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/30-minute-coq-au-vin-3362586 I can't stand the skin/fat on US rotis chickens that sit in the bags awaiting purchase. I had one in fridge (less a leg and thigh) so I skinned, removed gross fat and deboned it before adding just the meat. I left bacon and grease in pan when I added mushrooms and onions at same time to impart more flavor, a bit of color. I used full size portobellos, cut in 2 inch dice. Added a tad extra flour (2 tsp) as the mushrooms exuded a lot of moisture. Forgot to buy parsley so it looks drab, but tasted fine. We will get 6 servings out of it. And it really only took 30 minutes (not counting breaking down the chicken). I ran ahead of schedule so I let it sit in the pot for an extra 30 minutes, heat off, then reheated.

My local grocery had this marked down to $2.99 so I took a chance on it. It's quite fruity which I like in this heat (105 today in Tucson!).

Pearl Couscous Salad.

i don't like banana bread either. We have banana plants on our MXN property. I give most away, but I make a Banana Upside Down Cake using ripe, but firm bananas. They're tasty and pretty, too! I have also made Mary Berry's Banoffee Pie though I used a chocolate crust instead of her digestive biscuit base.

We had a mini-split installed in our main BR and it has heating element as well. It hasn't increased our electric bills, but we did add a few solar panels to support it. It's the only heat/cooling we have in house, other than very inefficient gas fireplaces which get used 2 or 3 weeks a year. Mini=splits are pretty inexpensive in MX.

Even my kinda cheap Mexican-brand Mabe stove has that same two ring burner. @Nancy in Pátzcuaro We went solar in 2017 at our Ajijic home. Payback was fast, less than 3 years. We now pay 70 pesos every two months for our electricity (under 4 US bucks).

Yes we both liked it....the cornmeal gives it both a good texture and taste. as does the buttermilk. I don't yet have a mixer at my US house and I liked how easy it came together with a whisk, then a spatula. The butter was melted when added.

As long as blueberries are on sale, I'll keep baking with them. Today I made this one, https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/blueberry-cornmeal-cake/ I no longer own a cast iron skillet so I made it in a 9 inch square pan. Realize I lost some crunch-factor, but cast iron is too heavy for me now. I found good homes for my older cast iron pieces.

Blackened shrimp over a black bean and fresh corn salad.

This photo was taken in 2022 in Barcelona. We happened by it on a night it was closed and we were departing the next morning. Not sure if it will make it past the moderators, but it is a legit photo that I took.

In the 70s we went to a cheezy tourist restaurant in Tijuana and their menu had 3 sections labelled MOO, OINK and PEEP. I always thought that'd be a great name for a restaurant, though I guess nowadays I'd add, GRAZE. All us foodies had/have dreams of what we'd name a restaurant if we could (oh, wait, that's just me with that dream???). What's yours?

There's no denying I am a sheet pan dinner aficionado when we are in the US. I try to find interesting cuisines and flavors and today's was one of the best so far as it included Aleppo pepper, cumin and smoked paprika, not to mention garbanzo beans. My marinade was especially picante as I used a 'hot' smoked paprika I bring back from Spain. The marinade (of which I reserved a bit for a dipping sauce on the plate) was quite acidic with fresh lemon juice and tomato paste. Here's a link to the recipe: https://www.themediterraneandish.com/sheet-pan-chicken-with-chickpeas/#wprm-recipe-container-55178 As an aside: the carrots and onions did not get nearly as soft as they normally do despite using the same oven (set for convection) and temperature and cooking time as previous sheet pan dinners with carrots and onions. I googled later and read that it was likely due to the hemicelluloses not dissolving if the cooking environment is too acidic. It is the breakdown of a produce's hemicelluloses that softens it when cooked. Live and learn!

Shrimp Curry (sauce courtesy of Trader Joe).

Blueberries with cream cheese in puff pastry. Blueberries tossed with orange marmalade and sprinkled with 5 spice powder.

Grilled gochujang pork tenderloin with a slaw of jicama and green apple tossed with Asian condiments. Cherry gochujang dipping sauce. .